NRSC video: “Caesar”

posted at 11:38 am on May 28, 2009 by Ed Morrissey

The NRSC goes after Harry Reid for his part in the Barack Obama rehabilitation of Sin City this week. The President, who had previously scolded TARP recipients for using Vegas for company meetings as a waste of taxpayer money, flew into Vegas on Air Force One with all of his Secret Service detail in order to rub elbows with Hollywood and raise a bunch of money for Harry Reid.

And what kind of tone does that set for Americans who are canceling vacations and pinching pennies?

I got a cute e-mail joke this week about Obama’s visit. Why were White House staffers happy that Obama chose to appear at Caesar’s Palace for the fundraiser? They don’t have to build the columns themselves this time.

I thought the commercial was good…but it does say something about where the GOP is currently, that they have all this ammunition, but no candidate has even been identified yet to run against Reid. Election is only 18 months away now.

The people of Nevada need to decide if they’re going to be like Minnesota and Michigan and vote in Dems who secretly relish the chaos and recession; or, if instead, they want to take responsibility, stop the victimization, and vote in a responsible person. Whoever the Republican candidate is, he or she will be heavily outspent, so it has to fall on the common sense of the Nevada voter to out Reid.

Nope. I’m simply in a minority group now, dude. White. Working (self employed). Taxpaying. Conservative. Freedom-loving. Not receiving a penny of gov’t assistance.

ErinF on May 28, 2009 at 11:55 AM

I’m with you ErinF…and the Thug in Chief is working to kill us off. From what I’m seeing in my business and in the car dealership closures and elsewhere, we better start fighting back a LOT harder, or it may be too late when we finally do…if it isn’t already.

I loathe Reid, but this is pretty lame. It would have worked if they had shown the hypocrisy of Obama scolding companies for going to Vegas (including comments from the furious Mayor who noted what this cost Vegas in dollars and jobs).

Spending money in Vegas is good for Vegas, so in that sense this makes no sense.

Harry “we have lost the war” Reid could care less what the people in Nevada think. If they are stupid enough to put this human garbage in office, they are stupid enough to keep him there. ACORN will be there just to make sure.

SEARCHLIGHT – They’re still talking about that day 12 years ago when Harry Reid, the local boy who became a member of the United States Senate, addressed the student body of the town’s elementary school that bears his name.

Reid passionately told the children: “Don’t let anyone ever tell you that because you are from a small school in a small town that you cannot grow up and become anything you want to be.”

Maybe even U.S. Senate majority leader, one of the most powerful legislators in the land.

That likely will be the next title for Reid, who grew up in a ramshackle house with no indoor toilets in this tiny Southern Nevada mountain village, population 800-and-change, 49 miles southeast of Henderson.

Say again?! Is that the same line Reid handed to Palin?

“Don’t let anyone ever tell you that because you are from a small school in a small town that you cannot grow up and become anything you want to be.”

Reid converted to Mormonism via a mesmerizing experience at a Bishop’s home fireside while Harry attended college in southern Utah. Reid got into a fistfight with his future father-in-law before he eloped with a Jewish girl, Landra who also converted to Mormonism for him. He put himself through law school working as a Capitol Police Officer.

Reid’s father, Harry, was a poor alcoholic rock miner who committed suicide when Reid was 33. His mother Inez died six years later in 1978, having worked washing laundry for “houses of ill repute” to afford raising her son on pinto beans and help him through college. They are buried in a white quartz lot at the town cemetery.

Inez’s grave was adorned with plastic red roses and rusted bailing wire in the shape of a heart. The tiny handprint of Reid’s son Josh is embossed atop her concrete headstone.

Mary Ann Meyers McInnis, a grade school classmate of Reid’s, said that even back in the day, he showed good leadership skills.

“He was level-headed and always seemed headed in the right direction,” said McInnis a bartender who, like many of the town’s longtime residents, called Reid “Pinky” – a childhood nickname for his skin’s hue. “I am impressed by what he has accomplished.”

Not everyone in Searchlight sings Reid’s praises.

“I’ve never voted for him,” said Clare Moran, a longtime local resident – and Republican.

Former Searchlight Town Board Chairwoman Judy Hill, who resides in a rustic home on Surprise Street, a short distance from the bait shop on Cottonwood Road, recalled that when Reid was selected minority leader, the usually quiet town was crawling with reporters.

They’ll probably return, she said, now that Pinky – who was home over the weekend – will become the big man on Capitol Hill.

“All I can say is if you are from Searchlight and you are not ecstatically proud of how a hometown guy can come so far and accomplish so much, then something is wrong with you,” Hill said.

Fundamentalist: God is in control and would never harm his children so as a child of God I am safe. Those who oppose God threaten my safety so I must enforce God’s will against all who oppose it.

Socialist: The government is in control and would never harm its subjects so as a loyal subject I am safe. Those who oppose the government threaten my safety so I must enforce the will of the government against all who oppose it.

Environmentalist: Nature should be in control and would never harm her children so as nature’s child I am safe. Those who oppose nature threaten my safety so I must enforce nature’s way against all who oppose it.

In many places the majority believe God is in control and they are the children of God. The bible says God would never hurt his children. Fundamentalists rail against immorality because it challenges God’s authority and thus threatens their safety. If people can disobey God with impunity then all security and safety is lost and the world is a frightening place with no certain limits on what people can do.

Government schools and mass media tell us the government is in control. The uproar when veterans are mistreated or the police are killed by mere citizens reveals a belief that the government should never let its subjects be harmed. Socialists rail against those who challenge the government’s power because it threatens their safety. If people can disobey regulations with impunity then all security and safety is lost and the world is a frightening place with no certain limits on what people can do.

Unlike the previous two cases nature is often not in control but the environmentalist believes she should be. The assumption that nature would never harm her children is shown by environmentalists who ignore the harmfulness of natural toxins and carcinogens. Environmentalists rail against scientists and engineers who challenge nature’s control and thus threaten the safety of nature’s children. If people can defy nature with impunity then all security and safety is lost and the world is a frightening place with no certain limits on what people can do.

In each case a childhood emotional dynamic has been retained into adulthood. God, government, or nature assumes the role of a child’s parents to become a universal parent for adults. Believers can’t be reasoned out of their loyalties any more than a child can be reasoned out of family loyalty.

Normal adults develop powers of observation and reasoning sufficient to overcome childhood dependencies and assume individual responsibility for thought and action. The growth of these powers is reduced however if the environment of the child is flooded with superficial positive images of God, government, and nature.

The development of objectivity is further complicated by the adolescent thrill of rebellion against authority. Angry adolescent rebellion and independent adult thought are both pleasurable and therefore easily confused. Some will see this essay as mere rebellion against authority but I believe my thrill comes from the discovery of hidden patterns because I also feel it when solving other types of puzzles.